Laboratory animals are often maintained in cages, e.g. large plastic bins. Such cages need to be cleaned and maintained on a regular basis. It is common to provide a bedding material on the bottom of such cages. Known bedding materials include corncob bedding, wood chip and wood shaving bedding materials, and paper bedding materials comprising paper sheets, paper pulp or recycled paper.
In order to accommodate a high volume of cages and to expedite the bedding of cages following cleaning, automated equipment has been used. Recently, some laboratories have been using environmental enrichment materials in animal cages. For example, small coiled paper rolls have been found to be desirable in some laboratory animal cages. The animals can “play” with the paper coils, by unrolling and/or tearing the paper, and can build nests within their cages with such materials. Such environmental enrichment materials are not suitable for dispensing with known dispensing equipment due to the materials inherent higher angle of repose and bridging coefficient.